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To Dive or not to Dive.............. What do you think?
Links Home November 1999 Dive January 2005 Dive March 2005 Manatee Dive News and Information Professional Works Fun Stuff My Personal Stuff Caity's Page Dive Links Please sign my Guest Book, I like to know who's been here and what you think.	Hello, it's Cheryl. Well, I finally went and did it. I have my Open Water dive certification. Now, this may not be a big deal to most of you out there, but it is to me. It is something I have wanted for a very long time, and thanks to a dear friend, I have been able to fulfill a lifelong desire. What you are going to see below are some of the pictures my best friend and dive buddy, Dan, and I took on our first ocean dive, on September 14, 2002. They aren't pretty, but they are the first pictures I have. Dan's the photographer though and he's pretty good at it. Without a doubt there will be many more to come. So take a look and enjoy, we did. My dive buddy, Dan This is Dan, I have him to thank for the dive lessons. Without his support I would never have been able to do this. He carried the tanks and made sure we kept track of everything. He even hauled my grubby butt up from the boat seat because the tanks were so heavy I could barely move. I am a bit spacey, and he also kept track of me. He gave me a world I never thought I would get to see.	Yes, folks, that's me! Scary isn't it? I think I sort of look like a frog with indigestion in this picture. But then I took a good look at some of the other people that were in our class, I don't think I look too bad.

		We dove on a wreck first. The water was really clear and watching the fish swim by in the open ocean was just beautiful. I only wish I had done this years ago. I realize how much I missed just looking in those artificial tanks. I never thought I would say this, but even a wreck is beautiful. The corals were amazing. I have seen this type of thing at places like seaquariums, but seeing it here was totally different. I wanted to stop and just study each piece of coral, each variation of color. The life, in and around the coral beds, was beyond description. Everywhere you looked something was poking it's head up or swimming around. If I had had an unlimited air supply I don't think I would have ever come back up to the surface. You could visit the same place a hundred times and still never see the same thing twice.

This is the friendly neighborhood eel at the wreck. Unfortunately, I did not get to see him. Dan found him and shot this picture. He hung around the wreck because it is a popular place for diving and people feed him. Nothing like a free meal.

Here's our instructor, Alex. He was handing Dan a weight to hook on me because I couldn't sink to the bottom Eventually, I made it, but it took a little effort and allot of learning on my part. Being in the ocean is allot different from the pool where we learned our basics. I don't think I will ever enjoy swimming in a pool again, the ocean is so much more alive.

I guess there is so much out there that I want to see before my time comes to an end. This is a big part of me now. Something I can do with someone that both of us love doing. I trust my partner to watch my back down there. Mistakes in this realm can be fatal, and I really do not want someone to collect on my dive insurance...... at least not quite yet.

This little guy is a pretty neon blue. Dan caught him up close. It seems the fish here are so used to people that they have very little real fear of them.

Like the eel, I think they expect us humans to come bearing baskets of goodies for them. And with a free meal on the end of the line, not many would pass that up to go elsewhere.

This is from our second dive of the day on a coral reef not far from the wreck.

This was a pretty little reef fish Dan spied.

I could not believe the colors I saw. I was mesmerized most of the time. If they had not kept track of me, I think I would have ended up just wandering around down there till my air got low. I was very disappointed that we had to surface.

This is a group of coral that I liked.

This is one of the people in our dive group. He and his buddy had come in from Texas for the Army and wanted to get their certification before they went back. But the weather prevented us from going out the next day to finish our dives. They had to go somewhere else to get the last 2 dives in before they left.

I take it back. He's just as scary-looking as I am in all that gear.

The end................

Well, here we all are heading back to the surface after the first open water dive. It was fun, the people were great, and I really had a wonderful time.

I hated to come back to the real world, but it is a needed thing until I either grow gills, or figure out how to make my air supply last more than one dive.

Personal Notes

I never realized how much I was missing out of life until I started this. I had dove as a kid, but those were childhood memories and not very clear. The world down there gives me peace and quiet, something that is very rare on the surface. If you have never dove, try it. It is quite possibly the greatest experience on earth. That world doesn't know war or hunger or hate, it is just what you see, a peaceful avenue for the soul.

For those of you that know me, you know I suffer from Fibromyalgia, Systemic Lupus, and a couple other goodies. I don't hurt when I am down there and for the first time in years I knew what it was like to be pain-free. You have no idea how good that felt. It was like being reborn. And it was all possible because of my best friend.

Thank you, Dan, you gave me a birthday gift that was worth more than all the gold in the world, a way to be myself again, to be free. And thanks for tolerating me when I wasn't very tolerable, not many would have the patience to do that.

And I want to thank Chuck, without his support I would never have had the time to do this. He put up with allot while I was taking these classes.

There will be more dives to come. I am going for my Advanced classes soon, I hope. And I still have more pictures to post of our last dive that finished our Open Water certification. So hang around and check back often. You never know, you may see a shark swim by.

All of the graphics you see here belong to so click on the logo and check out the great stuff they have for free. The Photographs are from Dan and are his property. Please do not use them without his permission.

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